When Even Kerry Gets Religion It’s Time to Start Praying

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Liberals are falling over each other these days to show how deeply religious (make that Christian) they are, from the “Faithful Democrats” to the “Red Letter Christians.” Even Howard Dean’s DNC has gotten itself a “faith advisory committe.”

This is all well and good (and possibly even–who knows?–sincere in some cases). But here’s cause for concern: John Kerry is starting to sound like Jim Wallis, which can mean only one thing–and not a good thing. Kerry gave a speech yesterday in Malibu, California, in which he said he’d “wandered in the wilderness” after the Vietnam War but, as the Washington Post puts it, came back to the Roman Catholic Church after a sudden and moving revelation in the late 1980s. He also said he wishes he’d given the speech before the 2004 presidential election.

“For 12 years I wandered in the wilderness, went through a divorce and struggled with questions about my direction. Then suddenly and movingly, I had a revelation about the connection between the work I was doing as a public servant and my formative teachings.”

Well, let’s take his word for that. He also said, of his 2004 run:

“I learned that if I didn’t fill in the picture myself, others would draw the caricature for me. I will never let that happen again.”

“Again”?! Please, God, no!

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It’s risky, but also unavoidable: A full one-third of the dollars that we need to pay for the journalism you rely on has to get raised in December. A good December means our newsroom is fully staffed, well-resourced, and on the beat. A bad one portends budget trouble and hard choices.

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We simply can’t afford to come up short. There is no cushion in our razor-thin budget—no backup, no alternative sources of revenue to balance our books. Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the fierce journalism we do. That’s why we need you to show up for us right now.

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